New system at Vanuatu wharf hopes to ease tensions

Transcript

A new traffic system being trialled at the main wharf in Vanuatu's capital has helped ease tensions over access to cruise ship passengers.

In March, disagreements between public transport providers and tour operators saw several altercations at the Port Vila wharf including an incident where stones where thrown at a tour bus.

The vice president of  the Vanuatu Cruise Tourism Association says the two month trial, which began two weeks ago, has so far been well received.
 
John Tonner spoke with Koroi Hawkins about the new system.

JOHN TONNER: Which involves a relocation of market vendors, a dribble feed and flow system for land transport, compliance with some of the water transport the water taxis. And it has sort of reached the shore tours the ship-booked tours, independent tours, there are a lot of players that all had to operated within a small facility and to make sure that we had safe and compliant operations so in a lot of ways it was turning a square wheel into a round wheel so that we could get things flowing smoothly. 

KOROI HAWKINS: Right and this 60 day trial what happens at the end of that?

JT: So we have , at the start of the trial three of the ministers supported the program and they were the ministers who the infrastructure was within their jurisdiction. There is the minister for public works, the deputy prime minister who is also the minister for tourism and the minister for internal affairs. So the traffic management plan is an all encompassing plan as I have said and after the 60 day trial the goal is to have actually a workable traffic management system that can then be put into effect and made as a permanent procedure for all those industries and stake-holders to follow. So this 60 days is done to iron all of the creases out of the sheet and enable the government to put into place an enforceable traffic management for the longer term.

KH: Now I understand you are getting a positive response from most stakeholders on this?

JT: Look it is, just to be really blunt we have had now four cruise ships that have come through the traffic management plan and every port call and every visit of a ship has improved how the plan has been managed. And those of us who are behind the structure and implementation we haven't reached where we need to be or where we are happy to be but we are very, very happy to say that all the ships so far have had a positive progression of the product or the traffic management. And by far the majority of feedback has been extremely positive, I think it is impossible to have a hundred percent of feedback positive from the start of the trial. And there are a few who are raising issues we have got a public awareness campaign which will be held tomorrow at the new convention centre up near parliament house at 10 o clock. And the public awareness is basically to let those that aren't direct stakeholders in the wharf be informed as to what is happening because there are a lot of indirect industries who are impacted by how the wharf is managed and how the traffic does flow. You know including surrounding residents, other related or fringe businesses with tourism just off the wharf. We want to get everyone up to the convention centre tomorrow (Friday 10-06-2016) at 10 o clock and put a big visual presentation on what has happened, where the traffic management 60 day goal posts are and then give them a little bit of a future vision to where we need to be heading. In a lot of ways and you know some of the positive comments, it is a simple you know that this is how traffic management should be heading. It is sort of a little bit of a reflection I guess of how far of track we were or how much the update and the structure of traffic management was desperately needed. But we definitely now have been heading in the right direction and it is a continuous improvement policy. 

KH: And looking to the future, longer term I understand there is other wharf  development that are hoping to ease the pressure on the main wharf?

JT: It has been a long road unrelated to this and that is the development of Lapetasi Wharf. Now Lapetasi Wharf is a project from the local stevedores and Vanuatu government with the assistance of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). It is a $US90 million wharf development and it will be an international container wharf specifically designed for container operations. So at the moment we have a smaller wharf which is shared by container and cruise operations but the development of this wharf which should be complete at around about September next year. Will give us a container wharf and it will also give us a cruise wharf or a tourism wharf. So it will definitely bolster our marin capacity. And with that, that is why we really push now to start developing a traffic management plan. So that when that wharf is finished we have got a horse that is already running rather than trying to whip the stable pony. We wan't to be really up and running and keep up because the growth in cruise tourism in Vanuatu and in the South Pacific has been pretty radical over the last four to five years and it shows very strong signs of continuing certainly in the immediate future. So some of these structures are both to keep up today and also to plan for what is ahead.